Sep 13, 2012 - 2KHz, London, England

Tracks

Mushy, Sad Thoughts In Decay

Words by Sean Moeller, Illustration by Johnnie Cluney, Recording engineered by Ian Grimble and Richard Matthews of Communion Music at 2KHz, Crouch End, London

You can hear Tigs, or Alicia Huertas, of the British dance duo Chew Lips, comment on the moroseness of her words and the music that she and mate James Watkins put together, both as the version of "Hurricane" fades out here and during the intro to the song, "Do You Chew?" She playfully mocks the way the synthesizers exit from the space, saying with a chuckle, "Sad decay." Then, in the sequence it's just seconds later, but in real time there was at least a healthy break from one song to the next between that comment and her saying, "This is so emotional. So emotional." It's funny to hear her delivering some burns, though they aren't really burns at all. It's just when you cake your poetry in such gloomy moodiness, you're asking for it and, if anyone's going to point out the decay or the heavy emotion, it might as well come from the makers, cause it's damned well going to come from the listeners as well.

The glum qualities of Chew Lips are quite rousing, however, occasionally feeling like that old, sad-eyed Hollywood style that Lana Del Rey brought to our attention late last year. They are the moments of concern - of dangerous sensibility and foregone conclusions that may or may not be entirely accurate. These are the ripe ideas that you've got a real fat chance of ever meeting that one person that you're going to want to spend your life with - either ever, or without ticking through countless duds and junk along the way. These are moments that will lead us to the brink of consternation and they won't lead us much further. We'll have to figure the rest out ourselves, but we knew that already. Tigs and Watkins leave us there to swim in our hot waters, giving us a wash of wet, wet, wet sweatiness that's so thick that we can quite literally chew on.